Conventional adaptive bitrate (ABR) technologies can be used to unicast audio and/or video streams to each individual IP decoder device in a network. In certain conventional applications, the bitrate of a unicast stream is adaptive according to an IP decoder device's capability and available bandwidth to receive and decode data received over a network. For example, a network in which the unicast stream resides can experience congestion. In response to a condition such as network congestion, a server can adaptively change a level of quality of data transmitted on the unicast link as it affects only a single recipient that plays back the content.
Unicast can be beneficially implemented in applications such as video on demand applications in which each IP decoder requests a unique video stream and plays the video stream back at its own pace. Unicast is typically not the best technique to use for broadcast type channels in which large numbers of audiences watch the same channel. This is because the number of unicast streams, and hence the use of network bandwidth, increases as the number of viewers increases.
In contrast to unicast technology, conventional multicasting is ideal for broadcast type channels, since only one multicast stream is required in any given network segment regardless of the number of viewers. When multicasting content, all clients receive the same multicast stream of content and play back respective content on a playback device. Significant bandwidth savings can be achieved by utilizing a single conventional multicast link, as opposed to many independent and replicated unicast links, when the number of subscribers playing back respective content becomes relatively large.
As another alternative to implementing many unicast links in a network to distribute content to multiple subscribers, it is also possible to distribute content to multiple edge servers in a network. The edge servers can be configured to store the content and may be located significantly closer to the end users, thus reducing an amount of network bandwidth and respective resources needed to support multiple conventional unicast links.